Cupid had locked himself in one of the Executive's rooms after seeing White Mage, Hannah's death.
There were loud screams and knocks on the door. But he was mentally too distracted from the world to notice them.
All the other voices from outside felt lies from others to him which after a while later vanished.
After everyone was gone, I even tried to talk with him too.
"Hey Cupid, you can hear this right?"
"..."
There was no reply from the inside or perhaps I couldn't hear what he was talking about. These rooms were designed so that you could only hear of outside noises but not the other way around.
If he was sobbing in a corner while ignoring me, I probably won't get any reply from him.
"Hey I can understand what you are feeling right now but-" My sentence was cut short with a heavy jerk on the door. I was so startled that I almost launched myself into the glass behind me.
Cupid inside the room has hit the door with a great force. And I could somewhat hear his screams -
"Nobody could understand me! Nobody can feel what I am feeling!"
"Ugh..."
So he heard me, though it doesn't look like I can have a normal talk with him.
With giving up to talk like that I left that place and Cupid alone for now.
After I went away, Cupid received a phone call. He ignored it but it continued.
As he rejected the call, another came, when he threw his phone, the call ended but started coming again.
"What's your PROBLEM?!"
["Hey, she died right?"]
"Y-You." Cupid suddenly calmed down unnaturally hearing that voice.
It wasn't the first time he had heard that voice, as that same voice had delivered a heart wrenching news to Cupid previously too.
["Yeah, me."] It was a calm and deep male voice which was hard to figure which age group it belonged to.
"You were right, Hannah did die. If I would have listened to you, I could have saved her! No, maybe I was stupid to be convinced by Hannah yesterday. It is all my fault."
["You realise it now?"]
"Yeah, it was all my fault from the start, Hannah was the only person in this world who understood me and believed me, I should have protected her better. No, I should not have helped her to get the post of an Executive to begin with."
His crying seems to have stopped. He wiped his tears and continued.
"She was too fragile and innocent, those bastards must be laughing that another spot for an Executive opened. Even the Executives may be laughing holding their stomachs. It is also because of Healer and that Assistant who supported her idea- No they used her!"
["They used her?"]
"Yes, when Assistant told me about the incident of Healer I should have known! She knew the culprit but refused to make a move! For some reason they won't touch the Hunter so they just keep feeding him more until he is full till throat and stop on his own."
With a little more push he was close to being broken.
"Hannah! Hannah! Hannah! Hannah!"
His mind was going corrupt with his own thoughts.
["Hannah, a woman of such unrivalled beauty and kind nature, she herself would have never joined those people. They deceived her, seduced her, used her mind and body and threw her away when their stomachs were filled."]
"Why? Why did they do that to my precious Hannah?"
["Hearing me, you already knew it but you too feigned ignorance and let them devour Hannah, I will remind you again who and where the Hunter is"]
"I... did"
At this point there was no rage or a feeling of vengeance. The thing that was breaking his mind was the depth of guilt, just another push and all of that, all of the pent-up tower of emotions may fall over the direction led by the caller.
[He is ________, call him someplace alone before you do the deed."
"If I do that, I hope it will be a dream and it'll be morning soon when Hannah will wake me up with a kiss and I'll have breakfast together talking-"
["You'll never meet Hannah and the only person who will live happily will be him."]
*beep* The phone hung up.
After a few minutes of this conversation while I was sitting in my room, I heard a loud sound.
"What the..?"
I peeked outside the room I was in and saw the elevator going down from this floor.
I checked on the room next to me that belonged to Cupid and saw his door wide open.
The lights were off so it was hard to see inside, thankfully the room had the same interior as that of mine so the switches were at the same place.
It looked like he took something out of his drawer and left running. I saw the light of his phone near the wall.
A few minutes ago I heard a light sound of a bang on my wall, it looked like it wasn't my imagination, he threw his phone on the wall.
The phone's screen was cracked from the impact but it seemed to be working just fine. As I peeked in his phone I noticed something, aside from all the calls from his subordinates and voice messages from an unknown number whom I would presume to be Controller.
There were two more things, the first was a call received by him while the other was a strange message sent by him, while both of them belonged to two different people. The call was from an unsaved contact.
Looks like he left the place after sending that message to that person.
"So he had already made contact with him." I thought to myself.
I looked at Irina's phone for a number and typed a message from Cupid's phone. As I sent the message I received a call from Mark.
"Did you find them?" I asked.
["Yup, it feels as if the Relic of Fate gives you clairvoyance."]
"I wish."
Regretfully I don't even know what it does.
"Meet up with Sera and hurry to that place before they kill me."
I disconnected the call and started moving.
"That place?"
Somebody whispered behind me.
I saw a girl standing in the door staring right at me.
"Ice Demon?" I said subconsciously seeing her body proportions.
It looks like the sudden sound also made Ice Demon check on him.
"Whoa! I'm surprised, how did you even recognise me without my mask."
She was wearing different clothes and just like White Mage her face was different from what one would imagine when seeing her while wearing the mask, her voice was also usually tampered because of it.
Though in this case I was surprised by her appearance, I did not see her face right away so I just saw her body and spoke, her clothes unlike the previous one were not that flashy.
The current casual clothes made her previous image truly become a disguise except for her bust which was slightly revealed through her top... This would be a secret going to my grave with me.
"There is only one female Executive present now."
"Oh, that makes sense."
Hope it does because I'd rather kill myself than reveal how I truly guessed it.
"I'm busy doing something so can you leave?"
"Are you the Invisible Hunter by any chance?" As I looked at her after her words, her eyes seemed lifeless as if she would kill me without a second thought if I answered wrong.
"...No but in a few minutes I think we'll know."
"So, Healer was truly not the killer?"
"She is not."
Her eyes turned back to normal and I started exiting the room. She slowly followed behind me.
I hesitated for a second but asked.
"Why are you following me again?"
"Didn't you say we are going to know who the Invisible Hunter is?"
"Not with you. I already have members of Healer's faction-"
Before completing my sentence, my left leg lost its power, I desperately manoeuvred my body to take the support from the wall as I lost my balance.
Ice caught me in the middle of my struggle and said -
"I may not be stronger than Healer but I am still the strongest after her. And I was still second when Spider and past Executives like Faceless Author and Chrono Master were here. So think deeply, do you really don't want my help?"
"I... change my mind, looks like you will be way more helpful than any of my current companions."
There was no point in arguing or rejecting her now, Mark was supposed to come with me for my protection but if she is the best only after Irina I don't have any objections.
We arrived in front of the meeting room of Executives. Ice wore another mask, way different from her usual one.
I tried to enter the door but Ice stopped me before reaching.
"That door is always locked, the key is held by that person." She points at the old man who sat near the door.
I walked up to the old man and asked him in an authoritative tone.
"Would you mind opening that door?"
"Sorry Mr. Assistant but even if Ms. Healer came and asked me to do that, I would have still refused." The old man answered me unbothered while writing something in a notebook without even looking directly at me.
His voice was low and slow but firm and uninterested.
Looks like even authority doesn't work on him.
I changed my tone to a polite one this time and asked again.
"It's just... I forgot my phone in the room, can you at least go alone inside and take it out?"
"Please Mr. Roald, my friend seems to be in trouble." Saying that Ice Demon hugged me from the side and asked the old man.
He looked up at the owner of those words and replied.
"I'm sorry but I will not."
Ice lowered head and looked at the old man, she removed her mask and said.
"Even not for your granddaughter?"
Still unfazed he asks.
"Dear, are you sure you want to reveal that much about yourself to a stranger?"
Looks like even without revealing her face, that old man knew the moment he heard her tampered voice.
"I don't like to lose to Irina and I especially don't want her plan to let Invisible Hunter succeed, you too right?" I looked at Ice cautiously when I heard Irina's name.
He sighed and went inside, it took him around two minutes to return and handed me the phone.
"Thanks!" Saying that we both started leaving but without getting noticed I looked cautiously at Ice.
The old man sighed again and said "Chandler wasn't lying about you." in a very low voice.
"What?" I couldn't help but turn around. My voice also rose unintentionally as it came out of nowhere.
The Old Man said something about Chandler but I couldn't hear anything aside from Chandler's name, he gently placed hand on my shoulder and pulled me towards him and whispered -
"It is not allowed but I will overlook it and won't ask why your phone was missing in the corner of the room with the record button on, but I'll just say best of luck to you young man."
Even though I had my usual poker face behind the mask, the old man really scared me. I would be shaking if I didn't know how to remain calm.
If he was with the Invisible Hunters he could have easily deleted the recorded video but looks like he is more from the side of Chandler.
"What do you know about Chandler?" I could have just left with the phone but I stopped and asked that because I think this man may be involved in Chandler's death.
"To be honest I don't really know much about that kid... Would it be really alright to call him kid? After all, he seems older than me."
What?! What does he...
"Hey, who is Chandler now?" Our conversation was interrupted by Ice Demon, who was standing with us.
"Looks like we were talking about different people."
The conversation with the man seemed confusing but I had no time to think about it.
As soon as I got my phone back, I received a message on Irina's phone.
[He's at the garage] I stared at the message for a bit and turned to Ice Demon.
"Is that man really your grandfather?" I asked while we walked towards the elevator.
"Why do you know the real name of Healer?" She asked me a question in reply.
After seeing how I couldn't answer, she covered her face with her original Executive mask of Ice Demon as we reached near the elevator area.